Battle School Reawoken
by SuperJ001
Summary: The Battle School is reborn under direct instructions from the hegemon himself. Dan has to battle his way through all the teachers tests and above all else find out what made Peter Wiggin re-open the school.
1. Battle School

It'd been twenty years since the formic wars were won. Peter Wiggin was the undisputed leader of our world and Demosthenes, Ender and many other important thinkers had left to colonize other worlds. However, the Hegemon was not stupid, he had never been so and he knew that without an army his hegemony would die with him.

That is why the battle school was re-opened. I'm not going to lie, part of the reason I went was because the Americans would freak if it was all Easterners. But I went none the less. There are something like 20 intergalactic space stations on Earth and naturally I went on the one in New York.

The Hegemon didn't wait for us personally because he has other work in the capital but there was a hologram of him on the ship.

"Hello boys and girls, please prepare for takeoff. As I'm sure you know already the battle school is being re-opened. As such you and the ships from the other stations are the first group to get to the school. This school has a lot of historical importance. Without it we would almost definitely have lost the Second Formic War." I have to admit I was unimpressed by his speech. Historical importance? Every single commander in the entire war had come out of the Battle School!

"Do any of you have questions?" Asked Peter.

"Is it true about you and Petra?" a voice asked from somewhere in the middle of the ship.

Immediately the adults on board scoured the room with angry glares looking for the culprit.

The Hegemon just smiled "Even Locke has the right to remain silent, though I will admit that I rarely use it." Despite being only about 35 the Hegemon had a sort of grandfather like atmosphere around him that somehow made it okay that a world leader was joking with nine year olds.

A few other kids asked some stupid questions and I started to look around. I was eight and almost everyone else was nine or ten. Looking back at it that sounds stupid but at the time it presented a serious problem. I wanted to be a leader not everyone's little brother.

"My name's Dan, what's yours?" I asked the boy sitting next to me. He was small like me and hadn't done anything to arouse anger or resent.

"Spike." He said

"What kind of a name is that?" asked the girl behind him

"I'm small but I surprise people when I'm pissed" Spike said turning. "Kind of like Bean"

"You sayin you're gonna grow eight feet tall and put the Hegemon in office?" The girl asked with a smile

"Hey you asked" Spike said.

"What do you think is up there?" I asked

"The Battle School." The girl said

"No I mean past that, they didn't do this for fun, they must think there's another war or something or else they wouldn't have re-opened" I explained.

"Oh I don't know, maybe Ender didn't manage to kill all them buggers" The girl said

"No." Said the bigger boy on my left, he was probably about ten. "Cause otherwise they wouldn't ever have shut it down."

We continued to argue but the truth was that we had no idea what we were talking about. The main thing was that we were talking and while other kids felt scared and alone we had a gang already.

Once we got to the Battle School we walked to the dining hall. It was huge. I don't mean big for a space shuttle, I just mean flat out giant. The one at my school could fit inside it 10 times over easily.

"Welcome to the Battle School. We are going to have an all school practice for the first week and you will all sleep here in the dining hall. Once we have assessed you we will split you up into groups. During the bugger wars our school was much smaller due to funding issues, however due to new scientific development our school has expanded drastically. We will have armies of 100 students. This first year we will have 8 armies but we plan to expand in the future."

The headmaster continued to ramble on and on but I was busy playing with my chicken trying to figure out if it was real or not to pay much attention.

Soon after dinner we went to battle room. It was no larger than I had imagined it to be but now it had 800 kids in it. Of course, we all new about the way the games worked so we shot anyone and everyone we saw.

My group of friends were clumped on the side with me because the air space was already far too cramped. Any kind of movement would most likely result in hitting into the wrong wall harder than anticipated.

I thought for a second "Hey guys, let's make a sphere"

"What do you mean?" asked the larger boy who had sat next to me. His name was Tommy.

"If we get like twenty kids together and make a globe kind of thing we can probably go crashing through this whole group."

"What do you mean?" asked Spike.

I started moving kids from place to place while I had Tommy hold us in place using the railing. Soon others started to climb next to us. We soon had a makeshift blob thing made up. There were about 30 or so kids in it and I climbed over as carefully as I could to the wall.

"Okay! On the count of three lets push off to the opposite side of the wall!" All the kids held onto each other and braced themselves "One, Two, Three!" We pushed off and went flying forward far faster than was safe or expected. We hit into about 40 kids as we crossed and we grabbed some 10 or so and they joined in with us.

Finally we reached the other side. 'Sweet!' 'Awesome' 'Let's do that again' was the general consensus.

"Guys! Let's see if we can join together in the middle!" I said "Spike, take that lot that way and all take these guys over here."

A couple of kids murmured something along the lines of 'who put you in charge shorty?' but most listened.

"OKAY GUYS!" I had to yell to be heard over the noise of 800 kids crashing into one another in null gravity "EVERYONE WITH ME GO TO THE OPPOSITE WALL AND EVERYONE WITH SPIKE GO TO THAT ONE OPPOSITE YOU WHEN WE HIT INTO EACH OTHER GRAB ON TO THE PEOPLE WITH YOU AND LETS SEE IF WE CAN GET TO THAT CORNER THERE!" I stopped to catch my breath and let everyone assemble "ONE, TWO, THREE!"

We leapt off our side as did the opposite group. It wasn't pretty but we crashed into one another and only lost about a third of each group when we sailed to the corner. However, our landing was not even close to as harmonious, it was a mumble jumble of arms and legs that if it weren't for null gravity would almost definitely have killed someone. However, with our suits and the help of Null-G no one was seriously injured.


	2. An Army

As the week of training continued a few things became clear. First, no group of 100 kids could ever be disciplined enough too truly be an army like Ender's Dragon or Bean's Rabbit. Second, I was one of the front runners for becoming a commander. And third, I had no more of an idea what I was doing than any of the other launchies.

I had a group of devoted followers made up of about 10 kids including Spike, Tommy, a girl named Marissa, who was Israeli, Jorge, a proud Spaniard, and a few others. There was also a much larger group of about 40 or 50 who practiced with us when we were in the battle room and a much larger group that absolutely despised me. The worst of them was named Denis. He was 10 and for some reason all the girls seemed to be in love with him. At the time I thought it was because he was French but looking back on it, it was probably because he was good looking I just didn't notice because I was too busy hating him.

He couldn't really hurt me because I was always with my friends but that didn't mean he was nice. Despite the fact that we all slept in the dining hall I had eked out a corner where my friends and I slept together. Denis decided to call it Lil' America "because they are all small and fat."

In my anger I tried to lock him out of his hologram like Ender famously did with Bonzo Madrid's desk but I guess the teachers didn't want us to do it because they had made it even more difficult than it was on earth.

I hated him. I almost hoped he got an army just so I could beat him.

We needed to begin normal classes. I remember loving math and history but flat out refusing to learn any sciences at all because I was completely certain that by the time I was an adult the ansible would be able to tell me anything I didn't understand and if I was to be a general science didn't even matter anyway.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the first week was over. They brought everyone to the dining hall for dinner.

"Alright everyone, as you know today is the day that the armies will be chosen." Said the headmaster. Everyone immediately stopped whatever they were doing and stared at him. "As you all know there are 8 armies so 8 commanders. Starting tomorrow each army will have one month to train their armies. Don't worry about having to share the Battle Room itself because each of the armies have their own personal practice room connected directly to their barracks." I remember being really excited. That meant I could practice any time of the day or night when I didn't have class. "From this day on you will eat, sleep and train with your army. Your commander is in charge of everything, where you sleep, where you eat and how you train…" The headmaster sure could talk, but I honestly couldn't care less, I just wanted to know what army I was and if I was a commander.

"The commanders are the following people." The entire school held our breaths as one. "Jack Reaor of Deer Army." Clapping "Susan Saskanova of Antelope Army" More clapping. As the names were read one by one I was becoming more and more worried. "Denis Akeman of Whale Army" I sank into my seat, oh no, what if I wasn't going to get one, what if I was going to be in Denis' army? But then they called "Dan Wilson of Bat Army" and I heard cheers from my friends and got slaps on my back and I was smiling with relief.

**Well I think that's it for tonight. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you liked it.**


	3. Bat Wings

The Eight of us were brought to the headmasters' office. "Alright." He said "I am the one who makes the teams but each of you may choose 5 kids and I will guarantee they will be on your team." Each kid wrote down their five on a list.

I wrote Spike Jorge Marrissa and Tommy's names down but then I had to think for the last one. There were a lot of kids who were friends of mine but I didn't want to choose on that alone.

I decided instead to choose someone who I knew would follow my leadership without question. I choose Greg. Greg was an absolute no body but he was a hard worker and I choose to put him on my team. With that I went to my bed in the dining hall for the very last time. The next day everyone had a uniform next to their beds.

It turned out that almost all of my friends were with me in Bat Army. We had a terrible uniform. It was orange, my least favorite color and a neonish blue which would show up in even the darkest light battle but at least they were still on my side.

"Alright everyone listen up!" I said as we got into the new barracks. "Do you all see this barrack? Do you see how neat and tidy it is? We are going to keep it that way." I looked around. The bunk beds went 3 high and there were 3 rows 11 deep. I had been given a private room in the back. "My plan for today is simple, I'm going to sit and watch you all practice. I'm not going to tell you this is a judge free environment, I am most definitely judging you but what I do want you to understand is that there is another 30 days until we have our first battle. You each have plenty time to impress me." I stood waiting. They all stood looking at me "Well go" They all did.

Most were poor as was to be expected. If a brand new school is to take 800 kids of course they aren't all super stars. I just looked on as they bounced around. After an hour or so some of the kids started to subtly show signs of wanting to stop. I took mental notes of which ones they were although I still didn't know everyone's names.

Eventually Marrissa decided to start to shoot kids. She got a group of four or five kids and started mowing kids down. I watched on and noticed that there was a glass window in between my room and the practice room. I continued to watch. Soon Spike and Tommy also started a small band of kids. After a while the room was becoming littered with the carcasses of frozen soldiers.

I noticed I couldn't see Jorge, then suddenly I saw him, he had a few other kids had made a fort out of the frozen soldiers. From this place of refuge they were able to shoot all of the other kids in the entire room.

I brought everyone back to me slowly. "Jorge, teach us how you did that."

He explained how when the frozen soldiers were hit it didn't matter because they were already dead but they could be used as shields. Everyone looked at me to add something to what he had said but I merely shrugged and said "just thought it was interesting how he managed to take you all out, that's all." I sent them all back to their play and this time some kids purposely set themselves up around one another in a protective forts to allow others to shoot out.

When they were frozen they held their position perfectly. Eventually there were five competing forts different walls. Then Greg and his group did something interesting, he pushed off the wall and crashed into the fort opposite his. When they hit both forts were completely destroyed.

Not everyone was out yet but I again brought everyone back to me "What do you guys think would have happened if Greg's group had two forts and one of them crashed and the other one shot?" I didn't wait for an answer, I just pushed them all away and waited again.

Soon Spike and his group of about 15 kids did exactly that. 9 went flying into another group in a triangular formation while the other 6 stayed behind protected by a group of about 20 carcasses. When the triangle hit its mark they held tight together and the remaining 6 hit almost everyone in both the fort itself and their group.

Again I brought them back. "Alright" I said "Marrissa, Spike, Greg, Jorge and Tommy, you are now toon leaders. Tonight each of you can draft 20 kids into your toon. Within that toon I expect four smaller ones of five to be broken into when needed." I brought everyone back into the gravity field of the barracks themselves. "From tomorrow forward we will have a toon battle at the end of all our practices. I am going to see if I can get any stars tomorrow, if not then we'll just have to use mattresses." A couple of the kids laughed "You think I'm kidding" I told them.

**hope you all liked it, my next one will probably come out tomorrow.**


	4. Bed and Breakfast

I woke up at 6:00 the following morning and before we went down to breakfast at 7:00 I got everyone's attention.

"Alright guys, we don't get to have stars for the first week of training so I decided instead of the normal rules of the game I'm just going to split you guys into your toons and throw 30 mattresses out there. Leave your guns here. Whichever toon can bring the most back to me in 30 minutes gets first dibs on the showers when we get back." Most kids were only half dressed or so "You can take as long as you want getting dressed but I'm going to start grabbing mattresses now."

Everyone started putting on their clothes as fast as they could. I threw 30 into the practice room and watched. Most kids took a long time reading the team lists to see which toon they belonged to.

At first individual kids grabbed them but soon they realized that this was ineffective because with a hard tug other kids could steal them. Spike got his team together into a loose formation-ish thing and began to send kids one at a time to steal them.

Marrissa sent ten of her kids crashing into his while she made the others into a triangular prism. The result was mixed, Spike's formation was broken but he yelled for them to go to the wall opposite the door or down as Ender would say. His troops got away with the majority of the beds but one of Marrissa's girls got away with three mattresses.

Meanwhile Jorge and a couple of his kids charged straight into the poor girl. They stole all three and one even managed to bounce off of her and back to his base. Jorge and Marrissa's girl just went flying into the wall with the other kids.

"TEN MINUTES LEFT!" I yelled to all of them.

Greg, who's toon still hadn't made a big move was clearly becoming desperate, he sent every single one of his toon members at Tommy's using their mattresses as shields. When they crashed it broke Tommy's formation and trapped about three mattresses. Then Tommy himself and the one other boy still trapped inside pushed against Greg's toon and they unceremoniously crashed into each other as their momentum pushed them to the opposite wall near Marrissa's toon which had formed a giant meat shield over their mattresses.

"FIVE MINUTES!" I screamed

Then out of nowhere Jorge's group which had been holding on to about 7 mattresses and doing nothing other than occasionally sending one or two kids to steal a mattress started an attack on everyone at once. They had formed five mini formations each of four kids. One went to every one of the other formations except for Jorge's own personal one which stayed behind protecting their mattresses.

Not all of these attacks worked, Marrissa deflected them easily but they did keep her troops from stealing Jorge's while it was easy.

But since Tommy and Greg's toons were both in shambles they managed to steal some from both. Spike tried to attack and steal the mattresses Jorge himself was sitting on but he didn't manage to gather his formation quickly enough and by the time he got their so had the rest of Jorge's troops. Since Spike was in a formation Jorge's troops pushed them all away as one giant being.

"AND TIME!" I pressed the button to bring everyone in. "Alright everyone, good game I assume you can all count, Jorge's toon won. That's 13 mattresses. Let's head to breakfast."

Everyone walked out and went to breakfast. Denis' whales were already there, the tables were now set up in circular tables because there was space for them now that there weren't beds inside. I noticed that Denis sat with what looked to be his toon leaders. Instead I decided to just pull 8 tables together and sit in the middle. I didn't try to keep toons together or anything I just let everyone hang with everyone.

I noted that I was the only commander not barking orders. Everyone else was keeping their toons together or trying to work out some sort of seniority and have assigned seating. I could see Denis and his toon leaders murmuring and pointing at my army.

Spike saw it too and was about to get up for a fight but I stared him down from my place in the middle of our pod and he sat back down.


	5. Angry Birds and a Teacher

CHAPTER 5- Angry birds and a teacher

When we got back to the barracks we faced a problem. About half of us were boys and half girls. And yet we had only one bathroom. Jorge's group got to go first as promised but of his 20 kids 12 were boys and 8 girls.

"Ladies first" Said one girl

"No I got three mattresses, I should go first" Said a boy

"And Jorge is a boy too" Said another

I thought for a second and got a spare blanket from the shared closet. No one really needed it because of climate control so I just grabbed it and brought it to the bathroom.

I tied it to two of the nobs in the middle "girls have that side, boys on this" I told them and asked for three more so I could create a makeshift hallway.

Everyone began to shower and I went to my room and grabbed my desk. I looked at the angry birds game that came preloaded and thought for a second, then I smiled.

"Do any of you want to play angry birds?" I asked

A couple of the kids near the door, some of whom had already showered other of which had not looked at me.

"Here I'll show you what I mean come on" I grabbed three pillows and about ten kids followed me into the room.

"Okay," I told them "form a formation of some sort that protects these and then I'll freeze you. If I throw Will and he manages to make them hit the wall than we win, if not you guys do."

I gave them five minutes and then froze them. I went to the opposite wall with will.

"So what do I do?" asked Will

"Um, I'm not really sure, get into a ball I guess" Will did so and I froze him.

Then I pushed him as hard as I could straight at the formation. He broke it and one of the pillows hit.

By that point there were about 30 kids watching.

"Who wants to take over?" Marrissa raised her hand and I threw her my freeze ray "I'm gonna go shower" I told her "Make sure everyone goes to class on time."

There were only a couple of stragglers who still hadn't showered when I got there. I looked at my desk and saw that my new schedule included a class called 'Leadership Program.'

I had 'leadership' first period so after brushing my teeth and putting my jumper back on I walked there. Will's history class was next door.

"That was really fun" He told me

"What?"

"Crashing into a bazillion people in Null Gravity." He laughed

"Yeah I still do wish we had real stars though, that way we could play capture the flag which would be awesome."

We got to each of our rooms. Denis was there too, waiting outside our classroom. Will went into his class.

"How's your army?" I asked him.

He didn't respond.

"How's your army?" I asked again even though we both knew he had heard me the first time.

"Look kid" He said although he was only a year and half older than me "I don't like you, so shut up and be quiet if you know what's good for you."

"What are you going to do? Beat me up in the bathroom?" Everyone knew how Bonzo had died and there was no clearer way for a battle schooler to say 'back off'

"Yeah I don't think I need to do that, because I'm going to beat you in the Battle Room itself."

I laughed. I was about to respond when our teacher came in.

"I am Nikolai Delphiki." We both walked into the room.

"You're the giant's brother aren't you." I said

"Yes I am." Nikolai sat down on a couch "Now my job is simple, to make sure that none of you become Ender."

Jack Reour made a face "Wait, isn't the whole point to be like Ender?"

"No." Nikolai said. "Ender won every battle. But he never let the enemy have a chance. I assume you've at least heard about The Speaker For The Dead?"

"Well yes but you're not honestly going to tell me you think Ender was wrong to kill them? Just because of some book written years later?"

"That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that I knew Ender, he was never happy. He was always trying to outsmart the other person not just spend time with them."

"So you think it would have been better if he had a childhood?"

"There is a time and a place for murderers like Ender and my brother, and there is also a time and place for peacemakers like Peter Wiggin or Mahatma Gandhi."

"So why do we still have war games?" asked Susan

"Peter needs an army. Despite what it may look like on the surface my brother never really commanded a true army, at most he had around one thousand men. Our goal is to make an army for the hegemony that will be able to be called on when we need an Ender."

"Do you want us to be Ender or not?" demanded Denis

"I don't want you to be but I know you will be. One of the people in this room will one day be the warrior of warriors." He explained

"So why are you telling us this?" I asked

"I'm telling you to try to be Peter. Those of you who do not become warriors will likely become something like Demosthenes or The Speaker. I wish you all luck but I'll do more than that." He motioned to me and Denis "You don't like each other."

I remember being a little embarrassed it was so obvious.

"I don't really care if you like each other but you are going to get along. When Ender killed Bonzo it didn't really matter, Bonzo was talentless but my brother and Achilles' inability to work together nearly cost us the planet even after we beat the buggers. So suck it up and work together. If I were in charge of this place the two of you would be in the same army as co-leaders but I'm not so you're going to at least pretend to like one another in this class."

I looked at Denis. He looked at me. We shook hands but both of us squeezed as hard as our small hands could.


	6. Denis

The game room was pretty much only a social room by that point. No one went there just to play a game because holograms can do everything from ping pong to halo in your own barracks. However, other than classes it was the only place you could safely talk to other armies without your commander knowing.

Because of this I made a point of steering clear of it most of the time. But one day, about 3 weeks into training a couple of my girls came back to the barracks. They were angry. I knew these girls and it took a lot of effort to piss them off but clearly someone had.

I had been discussing the new circular stars with my toon leaders when they came in. The girls came storming over to us. "The Whales and Deers won't let us into the game room. They've blocked it off from everyone in Bat army."

We all looked at them. I spoke "Can't you just tell the teachers?"

"We have."

"And?" I asked

"And nothing. The teachers literally refused to do anything."

"Come on. We're shutting this down." I said. There were only about ten fifteen kids in the barracks but I assembled them all and walked to the game room.

It was in the center of the circular school near the dining hall so it wasn't far. When we got there Denis was hanging out with a bunch of both his soldiers and Jack's.

"Hi Denis" I said as innocently as I could. He was playing ping pong with one of his own.

"Dan." He said, without turning to look at me.

"Next available" I said

Denis smacked the ball with all his force and won the point. He turned to look at me straight in the face. "All right, you're after Harry, and Ben, and Xavier, and Jon, and Alfred, and Scott, and Tim, and Susan, and Greg, and Albert, and Carl."

"Fine, I have time." I said. And I stood to watch. The rest of my army was staring tensely behind me.

After about an hour it was Carl's turn. Denis had beaten all of the others already, although Xavier and Scott especially were extremely close.

Carl was clearly very good. He won the first 7 points in a row. The games were to 21.

"Nice job Carl." Said Denis after the 7th. Despite my hate for him he seemed to really mean it.

Then Denis started to come back, it was 14-10. "I _will _beat you!" Carl said and he smacked another shot.

"Never!" Denis slammed the ball back and got the point.

But then Carl got a point, and then another, and then another. It was soon 20-13. And then Carl made one more. He had beaten Denis. I was up.

"Good game Carl" Denis said "I'll murder you next time though"

"I give my spot to Julie." I told him and gave her the paddle Denis had shoved in my hands.

I followed Denis "Wait up!" I shouted

"What?" He turned, flailing his nostrils.

"Why do we hate each other?" I asked

"Why is the sky blue?" He asked

"It's not. We're in the sky right now and it's black. And there are also billions of planets in the sky. To say it's just blue is absurd."

"I'm not sure what you were trying to say there but I honestly don't care either. Now go back to your barracks." He told me

"What I was saying was that the two of us are more complicated that just hating each other."

"Oh really?" He asked "Let me guess you've been talking with the giant's brother"

"No actually" I told him "I think it's absurd that he doesn't want another Ender. Ender did everything humanity could ask for him to do and then he left. He didn't stick around like Bean or Peter. He didn't try to control the world he saved. But think of what Ender could have done if there were two of him."

"Gee I really don't know" He said with a snarl "Maybe one of them would have gone to battle school and become a world class fighter and the other one become one of the most well-known writers of all time and then together save the world _twice_. Oh wait, that already happened!"

"Listen Denis" I dropped to a whisper "at the end of the day we are both loyal to Peter."

Denis raised his eyebrows "What makes you think that?"

"Because we're both smart." I whispered "Locke and Demosthenes managed to take over the entire world. But where's Demosthenes now? He just vanished into thin air along with Ender. But yet Demosthenes is still writing, and did so even when it was impossibly expensive to send anything more than a text message over the ansible. If Demosthenes was a no one he wouldn't be able to tap into that. He must have connections, and who would turn down Ender Wiggin, brother of the Hegemon and destroyer of the buggers?"

"So you're saying, what? That I should start writing politics? That we should both pretend that we're old men on the internet?"

"I'm saying that Peter Wiggin is the one who re-opened this school, and his brother was basically _made _by this school, I don't think it's a coincidence."

"Even if you're right, why should that matter? That doesn't mean I need to like you."

"I want to be the next Peter. You want to be the next Ender. Even if I'm completely off about Demosthenes no one would have put a teenager into the office of the Hegemon if it weren't for Ender. We need one another."

Denis scratched the back of his head nervously "Come in here" I followed him into a class room. "There's no camera's here."

"How can you be sure?" I asked

"Because I hacked into the system to find the exact location of every single camera in the entire complex." I stared at him in disbelief "Here, I'll show you."

He pulled out his hologram and not only did it have the locations but he also had the video feed itself.

"How did you get this?" I asked

"It took me days, and Carl helped." He told me "I also have normal access to the internet and a minor clearance for hegemonic works."

"Oh my god" I said "That's amazing."

Then the hologram changed suddenly, from a 3D diagram of the building to plain text. It was written in giant bold capital letters.

**I CAN GET YOU THROUGH TOO PETER.**


	7. Ender's Shadow

"Who is that?" I asked Denis

"I have no idea." He said in amazement "That shouldn't be possible"

"Well respond I guess" I told him

Denis opened the keyboard to type a response

**YOU DON'T NEED TO TYPE, I CAN HEAR YOU**

"Who… who… what are you?" I asked

**I AM THE ANSIBLE**

"What do you mean you're the ansible? You mean you control it? Are… are you… are you a bugger- I mean Formic" I was beyond scared

**I AM NOT A FORMIC AND I AM NOT A HUMAN I AM THE ANSIBLE**

"What do you want from us?" Denis asked, equally scared as I was.

**I WANT TO TEACH YOU BOTH**

"Teach us what?" I asked

**TO START WITH, DAN YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT DEMOSTHENES, SHE IS REALLY VALENTINE WIGGIN, ENDER'S SISTER**

"That actually makes sense" Denis said, starting to calm down "I was about to ask how he would have managed to spend so much time on the computer without arousing suspicion."

**ACTUALLY, HE DID SPEND A LOT OF TIME COMMUNICATING WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD**

"What was his stage name?" I asked

**HE DIDN'T HAVE ONE, HE SPOKE WITH ME AND INDIRECTLY THE FORMIC QUEEN.**

"He spoke with the formic queen?!" Denis said

**INDIRECTLY, THROUGH ME. IT'S BETTER THAT YOU JUST HEAR THIS FROM PETER. **The hologram switched from the words to a live video feed of the Hegemon himself.

"Hello boys." Peter said "I assume Jane has introduced me so I'm just going to get right to it. I need you both to carry on my legacy. Ender and Val are only about 7 or so years older than you because they have been traveling in space. For obvious reasons I can't do that. Demosthenes and the Speaker for the Dead are both going to be alive for at least another 200 years but I will not. I'm perfectly fine with that but the Ansible must."

"Wait, are you saying Ender is the Speaker for the Dead?" I asked

"Oh have you not told them yet? Well, yes. Jane tells me that he got the information from the hive queen herself."

"The buggers aren't all dead?!" Denis asked "And you know this? And you're not doing anything!"

"I am definitely doing something, I am protecting her." The Hegemon told us.

"Why" I asked

"Because if either Ender or the Hive Queen died so would Jane and her ansible."

There was a moment of silence. Neither Denis nor I could think of any answer at all to this. Peter was forced to continue.

"Jane was created because the hive queen and Ender were both begging for a way to communicate with each other. She was originally hardly more intelligent than a dog but as the ansible grew so did Jane. She is sentient. In fact she is more than that, Jane is indistinguishable from a god."

"Except gods don't die. How can you be so sure that she would die to if the hive queen or ender died?" Denis asked

**BECAUSE I WOULD NO LONGER BE NEEDED, THE ANSIBLE WILL ONLY SURVIVE AS LONG AS THE FORMICS NEED HUMANS AND THE HUMANS NEED FORMICS**

"That doesn't make any sense" I said "Human's don't need Formics."

**YES YOU DO, WITHOUT THEIR TECHNOLOGY AND PREHABITATED WORLDS YOU WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO COLONIZE OTHER WORLDS**

"I guess" I said "But why do they need us?"

"They don't need all of us" Peter's face came back to the hologram "Just my brother."

"So what does any of this have to do with the two of us?" asked Denis

"Assuming that Ender manages to find a suitable world, which Jane tells me is essentially his only real goal in life, we don't really need to worry about the Formic Queen dying."

"And Ender?" I asked

**THAT'S WHY I NEED YOU. IF EITHER ENDER OR THE FORMIC QUEEN KNEW THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH ME THEY WOULD HAVE THE ABILITY TO OVERIDE MY COMMANDS. THEY WOULD CONTROL THE ANSIBLE.**

I was dumbstruck as was Denis. I spoke extremely slowly "you mean to tell us that the Formics could at any moment take over every single spaceship in the entire universe along with most desks and holograms?"

"And that's why we need your help." Peter said.

"To do what?" asked Denis

**YOU BOTH KNOW NIKOLIA. HE HAS A SHIP. THERE'S REALLY NO HURRY ABOUT IT SINCE ENDER AND THE FORMIC QUEEN BOTH ARE FROZEN IN TIME FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT TWO HUNDRED YEARS OR SO, ALTHOUGH IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU ARE STILL YOUNG.**

"What are you talking about? Young for what?" I asked

"I need you to follow my brother. If you stay on a ship time will go infinitesimally slowly for you." Peter said. "Eventually my brother and sister will find a place for the Formics. When they do I need you to find them. I need you to do something with my brother."

"What?" I asked

"I can't tell you."

I looked at Denis. He looked at me. "Let me get this straight" he said. "You want the two of us to sit in a spaceship for two hundred some odd years so that we can do something that you refuse to tell us anything about?"

**I WILL TELL YOU. WE NEED YOU TO PUT ENDER'S SOUL INTO PETER'S BODY. WE NEED YOUNG PETER TO RISE AGAIN.**

"Why?" Denis asked "So that you can take over the world again?"

"So that the Ansible lives. We will tell you more later on, you've been here to long already, for now you need to continue to pretend you hate each other and go on with your lives. Don't arouse suspicion."

"I don't think pretending we hate each other will be all that hard." I said.

"Agreed" Denis spat.

We were both about to back to our barracks when Peter stopped us "Wait, the cameras. We need to make it look like you got in a fight. Denis, you're bigger. We need to make it look like you won."

"So what should we do?" I asked

"Denis, punch Dan in the jaw and break a tooth. And Dan, try to break Denis' nose. Oh and Dan you should come out holding your crotch."

I looked at Denis and shrugged. I punched him in the nose and almost immediately it was bleeding heavily. He punched me back and although he didn't actually break a tooth my lip developed a nice bump very quickly.

"I guess you go out first." It hurt a lot when I spoke.

"Okay" he said as blood began to drip down his shirt.

After about two minutes I staggered out holding my groin.

**_I'm about a third of the way through the next chapter and hope to have it out pretty soon. Hopefully tonight but if not tomorrow. _**


	8. A dark cave

By the time I got back to my barracks my lip had a giant bruise but the blood was no longer flowing freely.

"Oh my god!" Said Spike

"What happened to you?" Asked Marrissa.

"Denis, I got him pretty good too though" I quickly tried to change the subject. "Come on, put on your suits, we have practice in ten."

We suited up. Now that we had our stars we could work on more specific moves. I set up the stars in the middle to make a sort of cave thing on both sides. Both were only enough to fit around 10 kids. I had made a makeshift goal on the other side by duct taping three mattresses for the goal itself and 5 pillows for the head pieces.

Soon everyone was filing in. "Okay everyone. Before we start I'm just going to do one thing" I shot every single one of the toon leaders and pulled them to the middle of the room along with me "begin!"

I felt my mouth for damage. All of the toon leaders were still frozen. They couldn't do anything at all but to move their eyes.

Will came flying immediately to Marrissa his toon leader with three or four others. "You can move your eyes. Look towards where we should move."

Marrissa looked down to the cave.

"Look up if half should go and down if we should all go" One of Marrissa's girls went back to the rest when she saw 'half.'

Then Will brought Marrissa's carcass back to the cave itself. The other toon leaders saw. Spike made a loud noise of protest but he couldn't actually speak so it was useless. However, I smiled.

Under Marrissa's control, her toon began to take out more and more of the other team. After about 40 minutes the game was done, with Will crashing into the beds and a random group of a bunch of kids on his team hitting the pillows.

I unfroze everyone. "Marrissa's team had a giant advantage. Marrissa wasn't out of the game." Everyone was aware of that. "I must say that I'm unimpressed the other toons didn't do the same once they saw Marrissa. They weren't hiding her at all, they didn't have to, she was already dead." Some were also staring at my lip but most were awkwardly trying way too hard to look only at my eyes. "I want to do the same exact exercise again but this time I suggest you figure out a strategy with your toon leaders. You all have 5 minutes with your toon leaders and then I'm going to shoot them."

Spike, who was still next to me spoke "Yo Dan, you ok?"

"I'm fine." I said as dully as I could.

"No you're not. I've been watching you for the last forty minutes. Something is up."

"Look, your toon is waiting. Go." He did.

After practice was over I went into my room to see if I could speak with Jane.

"I want to speak with Demosthenes." I said

**FINE. THIS MAY TAKE A FEW MINUTES, SHE KNOWS OF ME BUT WE ARE NOT CLOSE**

"I have time." I said "I have plenty of time"

I waited for about fifteen minutes

**SHE IS READY** the hologram became a women. She was about 23 or so, I wasn't really sure. "Jane told me about Peter's plans. I won't say I am entirely for it but I can promise not to tell Ender about it."

"Good."

"So what exactly is it that you and Denis need?" She asked

"I need you to explain the Formic Queen." I said

"Oh well that's easy, it's an egg. She somehow managed to put her consciousness into it. Other than that I don't really know."

Valentine continued to explain and then I heard a sneeze. Immediately Jane shut off the hologram **THAT WAS ON YOUR SIDE DAN, GOOD BYE.**

I turned around and saw that it was Spike. He was hiding in my closet.

"What are you doing?" I said in an angry whisper

"I should ask you the same, the Formic Queen? Dan you are so screwed when they find out, there's a camera in here!"

"I'm not worried about that." I didn't want to tell him anything. The problem was he already knew a lot.

"Why? Who was that women? Who is Jane? And why didn't you want her to tell Ender something? What's going on?" He was whispering but it was very urgent.

**YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE DAN. TELL HIM**

"How much?" I asked "Get me Denis"

**HE'S IN PRACTICE, HANG ON, I'LL FORCE PULL THEM BACK TO GRAVITY**

"What is that thing? And why are you and Denis doing anything together?"

**HE'S IN. **"What the hell is going on Dan! You interrupted be practice!"

"A kid in my army overheard while I was speaking with Demosthenes."

"What kind of an idiot are you Dan!" He wasn't shouting for fear of being overheard but he was pissed.

"Would it have been better for me not to involve you? To pretend I hadn't heard him in the closet and go on with my life? He would have told the adults and then not only would we be dead but so would Jane."

"Is someone going to tell me why the two of you are working together not only with each other but with Valentine Wiggin and this Jane person?" Spike asked

"This isn't an option Denis. We have to tell him."

Denis stood crossed armed "Fine. But if you screw up again I swear I'll kill you."


	9. Remember Achilles

At dinner Tommy and Greg were both ready for a fight. They wanted blood the leader of the Whales. Or any Whale to be honest. Before I could stop them they were standing over Denis. He continued to eat his steak very slowly. A few of his toon leaders started to get up but Denis shook his head very slowly looking at them.

"How's your steak?" Asked Tommy

"Pretty good." Denis answered, he wasn't saying it in a way that suggested he was looking for a fight but also not so as to back down.

"You might want to put it on your nose, it might help it heal the cartilage." Greg said with mock concern

"Guys don't bother" I said coming over to them "He's not worth the effort"

Carl stood up angrily "Oh really!" Denis grabbed his hand but he shook it off. "Get out of here. NOW!"

A few of the other kids from both our tables came over to the commotion.

"Guys, sit down." I said to my army.

"Why should we?" Asked Tommy

"Because Dan told you to." Said Spike.

Tommy sulked back to our table as did the rest of my army.

My desk buzzed from my pants pocket. **FROM PETER- DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN, EITHER OF YOU**

The Principal came over to my table and tapped my shoulder. I walked with him and he got Denis as well. If it had been anyone else in either army they would have been accompanied with 'ooh's and 'you're in trouble's. But it was not someone else. Everyone watched but no one spoke.

We went into his office. Inside was Nikolai.

"The two of you are creating a problem for me" Said the headmaster.

"And?" I said, trying to be as bratty as possible

"Look, you're two of our most promising students but your attitude towards one another is getting in the way of things."

"I don't know what you're talking about" Denis pretended to try and hide his broken nose

"Why didn't either of you tell me?" Asked the headmaster

"Tell you what?" I said innocently

"Neither of us are blind Dan." Nikolai couldn't have been further from the truth.

There was silence as Denis and I both tried to look as flustered as we could.

"I really am serious, we didn't re-open this school just for the fun of it, we need you."

"But you don't need Ender, and Peter is still alive, and so is Petra Arkanian or Wiggin or whatever. Who do you need us to be?"

"We need you to be Dan and Denis." Nikolai said

"Why can't we just be Denis" I gestured to one side "and Dan" I gestured to the other

"That's not the point." The Headmaster said

"WHY?!" I screwed up my face like I saw other kids my age do.

"I've already told you." Nikolai said "It's too dangerous for you not to be. You're both stupid, just like my brother and Achilles." The headmaster was clearly taken aback by Nikolai's forwardness but he was on to much of a role to stop "If you two ever got into a fight outside of these walls…" he shook his head "It was far too close between Achilles and my brother, the only real reason my brother won was because of the Hegemon, if there wasn't someone like him around we might still be at war. So until you two can point to the next Peter Wiggin, stop beating each other up in class rooms."

I stared Denis down. He stared at me back. I have to admit I was only half pretending to hate him. We went back to our barracks.

**_I know, short chapter, but keep in mind I did this one and the last one in one sitting..._**


	10. Deer Army

After what seemed like ages the first month at Battle School was finally over. Jane had proven to be extremely helpful, she did simple things like answers to homework but also more important things like setting up conversations with Valentine and Peter as well as sending me email exchanges between government officials and company CEOs. As I spent more time with Jane her personality and sentiency became more and more apparent.

However, with the end of the first month we could finally start having battles. Our first was with Deer army. I didn't know whether they were good or not, I didn't know if Jack was to the book or if he had wacky strategies, I honestly didn't know anything. The one good thing was that neither did he.

"Alright guys" I gathered everyone together "Right now every single one of the armies is equal. I don't know if Deer is going to be the best team there is or the worst. What I do know is that everyone here has worked to damn hard to lose." Cheers, more than it deserved "I'm going to be honest, if I had my way I would go right against Whale today instead of wasting our time with Jack, but since we can't beat Whale ourselves today I guess that Antelope will just have to do it for us and we'll have a warm up game." By that point I didn't actually hate Denis but my army did so I figured that I might as well take advantage of that.

We ran to our side of the battle room. "Alright" I said "When those doors open I want absolute silence." I already had it but I said it anyway. "Whatever it is that's in there, just listen to your toon leader and you'll be fine."

The doors opened. The entire army held our breath as one. We saw nothing. It was nearly pitch black.

Will, who was our designated scout darted out and came back quickly. "There's about a hundred stars, it looks symmetrical. It looks like there's fog in the middle of the room because all I could see on their side was a hazy something or other."

I nodded. I told each of my toon leaders where to go. "Greg, I'm going with your toon. We're going straight at them."

Obviously I used Ender's knee strategy with our attack. I'm not sure what it was like in his day but 20 kids going about ten miles an hour with guns through their legs always looked cool to me.

When we got their Jack yelled fire loudly. "Take out Jack" I told the toon. One girl managed to get him. They didn't keep his carcass around. He was just floating around dead. "Retreat!" I yelled loud enough that Jack's army could hear.

They weren't really certain who was in charge without Jack so two of his five toons followed me and the others did not. This was exactly what I wanted. With all my kids safely behind stars in the middle of the fog we picked off a great number of the other team while only losing five of our own.

Meanwhile, the other toons had been circling on the side lines at that point it became a bit of a shoot out between Spike and Greg's toon and Jack's entire army. Because of the fog however, they didn't know that. The rest of us went back to the home base where I made a giant pod using all of our frozen soldiers and even some of Jacks as a meat shield.

"GO!" I yelled and our giant pod went flying all the way across. Now inside the very middle of Deer we killed almost all of them in cross fire. I'm pretty sure we killed some of our own too but because of the stars and meat shield it wasn't too bad.

It was messy, but we won. I even had all my toon leaders except for Greg alive to do the honors. I myself went through the goal. Nikolai and the Principal presented me with the gravity puller. I pulled in all of my team and made them line up to shake hands. In the old days they would have a more elaborate thing but I had no interest in being a copycat Ender Wiggin, even if he did manage to make a god. First I brought Jack down and then the rest of his army. We all shook hands and no one squeezed to hard.

"Congratulations Dan. That was well done." Nikolai said as I passed by.

I kept everyone quiet until we were safely out of earshot from Deer. Once we were I spoke "Yes!"

Everyone took it as a cue that they could celebrate now. We smacked ceilings and hugged and yelled extremely loudly.

When we got back to the barracks I jumped right into Null-G. Soon everyone was just messing around. We weren't actually practicing we were just playing. A couple of girls were even trying to play patty cake. Unfortunately they couldn't really do it though because they kept falling apart.

I decided that since we had won the match we would have an entire practice devoted entirely to patty cake. I won't bother you with the details of the 'practice' but it suffices to say that we succeeded. It took freezing ten kids to hold them in place but we did it.

**_Thank you guys all for reading. I'll probably have the next one out in about two hours._**


	11. Nikolai

Denis' army had won too. That night Demosthenes came out with a new article about the hostility between Americans and Mexicans. She said it more eloquently than this but essentially the gist was that it was making their continent less strong and that their leaders needed to grow up and accept that they were essentially one country now. Spike, who knew everything was still not close to Jane, Peter or even Valentine.

"Dan" Denis appeared on the screen. Spike and I were in a class room that wasn't in use. Jane had been playing with the cameras so what the department saw was me going into my room with my desk and Spike going to the gym and running on a tred mill. Both were simple stories and no one needed to vouch for us if they were brought into question.

"What?" I asked

"I'm going to let Carl in on it." He said

"What? Why?" I demanded

"You let Spike in"

"Spike let Spike in" I corrected

"Well that's not my fault. Look I'm not asking, I'm telling. You can't stop me

**I CAN**

"But you won't" Denis said "Because you know it's only fair"

**TRUE**

"Wait, he's just going to tell someone for the hell of it?" Asked Spike

"No one wanted you here, not even Dan, but without Carl I wouldn't have managed to find out anything. He's a tech genius."

"We have Jane, it doesn't matter that he can play around and find where the cameras are located in one little battle school." I said angrily

"Look, I've already told you, this isn't a request." Denis stated "I'm bringing him into my room right now."

I knew better than to argue. His mind was made up. I was stubborn yes but I was also reasonable, I couldn't have stopped him.

Denis told Carl everything of Jane, and Demosthenes, and the Hegemon and the Formic Queen. Carl was taking it very well. Nodding silently. Then Denis fell silent.

"What is it?" Carl asked

"There's one more thing." Denis stated

"Yes?" He asked

"Before I show you, I want you to know that Jane wanted him. I didn't."

My face was on the hologram. "Hi"

Carl jumped back "HIM!" He was pissed "Why the hell would you let _him_ in on this?"

"Nice to see you too" I said "Look, Jane wanted the two of us. I still don't really understand why but-" I stopped midsentence.

**YOU ALL HAVE TO GO, THE BATTLE SCHOOL IS TRYING TO OVERRIDE ME AND VIEW YOUR VIDEO CHAT. IT'LL PROBABLY TAKE ME ABOUT THIRTY MINUTES TO FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT UNTRACEABLE.**

The video turned off.

"Well that sucked." Spike said "And why _does _Jane want you two?"

"I honestly don't know." I said "But I trust her."

Spike seemed like he was going to protest but then he fell silent. He put a finger to his mouth to silence me. He pointed to the door and mouthed 'teacher'

"Dan!" It was Nikolai "I know you're in their!" He tried to open the door "I don't know how you managed to lock this door but I _will _open it!"

I silently thanked Jane for locking the door. Spike pointed down to the air tunnel below us.

"Jane?" I whispered

**I AM HERE. THERE ARE THREE SCREWS RIGHT THERE, THERE AND THERE. ONCE YOU OPEN IT GO LEFT THE FIRST TIME YOU CAN. FROM THERE YOU'LL GET INTO ANOTHER CLASSROOM AND THEN YOU CAN BOTH LEAVE EASILY. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE CAMERAS I'VE GOT IT COVERED.**

We followed her instructions and were soon away. We ran all the way back to our barracks.

"How could he have known we were there?" I demanded

"Don't ask me." Spike answered, looking expectantly at his desk

**I DON'T KNOW.**

Jane always knew. Always, so the fact that she didn't greatly disturbed me.

When I got back to the barracks about half of the army was there. I had a couple of magnets which I often brought out to the Null-G. I knew that no matter how far I threw them they would eventually grip together but I would try to make them do so in a specific spot or time.

Eventually, it was time for dinner. Some of my army was already there. The score board was not very interesting. Exactly four had a 1-0 'undefeated' score with '100% winning average' and the other half had the opposite.

"Dan" It was Nikolai

"Yes?" I asked

"Come with me."

Uh oh. I thought. He hadn't grabbed Denis that I had noticed but he wasn't in the dining hall either. We walked into his office.

"There's no camera in here." I happened to know that was a lie.

"OK." I said "Why should that matter."

"Because you know I'm lying" He said "I've been tracking you're work on the ansible"

"What are you talking about?" I tried to play dumb

"Dan, cut the crap. You can't pass as stupid when you're a commander of 100 kids and won the game faster than any one of the other armies did."

"I did better than anyone else?" I asked, trying in earnest to make it seem like I legitimately cared and wasn't just trying to change the subject.

"I'm serious Dan, what's going on? You have been spending way more data than is possible given what it says you're doing. So either the ansible works perfectly in every single other way in the entire world or you are up to something."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stated.

"Yes you do. And so will I soon enough." He said

"So then why do you need me?" I smiled

"Because Peter needs you." He said.

**BACK OFF NIKOLAI **it was a gutsy move but Jane had changed his monitor to her bold font

"How did you do that?" Asked Nikolai

"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't do anything."

"As I'm sure you're aware this is under surveillance. I'm going to get a grant to figure out who's helping you and how you got in touch. Or, you could just tell me right now and everything will be just fine."

"No." I got up and began to leave.

"You're making a big mistake." He told me

"Oh really? Check your camera." On the hologram the picture was exactly as you'd expect it to be except that the hologram was off and I was not in the room. "I might watch that later tonight. It's kind of funny to see one sided conversations like that."

Nikolai just stood there. "I'm going to leave now." I told him

_**Sorry I didn't have this up sooner. I was really tired last night.**_


	12. A downgrade

We, as well as the rest of the school had one full week before our next game. My strategy of taking out the commander had worked last time so I was trying to perfect it. I had a take-out toon try to kill just me when the rest of the army was all surrounding me. It took three days before Marrissa's toon could finally do it. I dubbed them the take-out team.

Meanwhile, I had been working with Will on a sort of language using only eye twitches and grunts. He could figure out most basic commands even when I was frozen. Eventually I would need to teach some others how to do so in case Will was also frozen but as of right then it was as good as it was going to get.

Denis' army had taken longer to win the game but while I had lost 43 kids he had lost only 26.

By that logic either one of us could technically be in first place. My army was doing extremely well. But then the principal ordered me to his office.

When I got there Denis and Nikolai were both there.

"I'm not going to sugar coat this, I have decided to take away both of your armies." The headmaster said.

There was a stunned silence before Denis and I fully grasped the meaning. Denis was the first of us to speak. "What?!"

"You can't do that!" I screamed

"Of course I can" Said the headmaster.

Nikolai just smiled at me "It's only temporary, each of you get to choose one half of your army. Together you will co-lead one army."

"What's going to happen to the other half?" Asked Denis

"We have a new group of launchies. Two hundred of them in fact. They will join those ranks." The headmaster explained

"Absolutely not." I said "Every single person in my army has tried their ass of in this school and you can't put them back with the launchies because Nikolai decided to make it his personal goal to screw up me and Denis' lives."

"You can't do this." Denis stated. "My army has been training as one group and Dan's as another. You can't just throw them together like that. Plus we've only had one battle each."

"Each of you did vastly better than any of the other teams. Now that the best soldiers of each of your armies are joining forces there's hardly anything that can stop you." Nikolai said

"You are both dismissed. You will have one night to tell your old armies and choose your soldiers." The principal said.

Both Denis and I began to skulk out of the office until suddenly he stopped. "Wait, what if you let a new commander take control of any 100 of our soldiers and we get the other 100?"

The principal thought "So they get the pick of the litter? And you both are stuck with the rejects?"

"I would agree to that" I said.

"Fine." The principal said.

We both left angrily brushing past Nikolai.

_**Ok I know this was a really short chapter but I feel like it deserves to be its own separate thing from the next one**_


	13. Chapter 13

When I got back to the Army Barracks I had to tell everyone. "You guys" Everyone fell silent and listened "I have some bad news. Their switching things up. Half of you are going to join Denis and me as Co-Leaders and the rest of you will go with a new commander."

There was silence. After what seemed like an hour Spike finally spoke "But you to are the best commanders they have, why the hell would they demote you?"

"I didn't ask for this and neither did he. Whatever army any of you end up in I want you all to know that you are great soldiers and I'm proud of each of you." For a split second I asked myself who in my army would be rejected by the new commander. I wouldn't get any of my toon leaders, that much was obvious but Will and Julie, who were both extremely capable hadn't gotten any kills because Julie had been on defense as a last resort and Will was at my side as usual just in case. Hopefully I'd get them.

After answering a couple more questions, I didn't know when Denis and I would be getting a fully army again, I didn't know if our army would get first pick on the new launchies, blah blah blah about details, I went into my room.

**I AM SORRY DAN.**

"You're sorry?" I asked incredulously "Wasn't it you and Peter who wanted the two of us to spend more time with each other?"

**NOT LIKE THIS. YOU KNOW THAT**

"Yeah, I guess I do" I didn't want to cry, I hadn't since I was four, but no matter how hard I tried, deep down I was still eight years old.

**THE TWO OF YOU WILL BE FINE. I TOOK THE LIBERTY OF LOOKING AT YOUR BARRACKS AND IT IS VERY IMPRESSIVE. THERE'S A BATHROOM FOR BOTH GENDERS, A SPACE FARM, AND EVEN A KITCHEN.**

I sniffed. "A kitchen? Why would we need a kitchen?"

**I DON'T KNOW, BUT YOU HAVE ONE.**

"Well that's too bad because I don't know how to cook" I told her.

**I DO**

I woke up the next day and half of my army had yellow 'Barracuda' slips belonging to Samantha Fried, the new commander and the half with me and Denis in 'Wolf' had Orange, the color of my old army and black a color of his.

I watched as every single toon leader along with most of their seconds and thirds left for Samantha's army. All I had was, as expected, Will, Julie. Not that I didn't like the rest of my new army it was just that they weren't exactly strong in formations or very fast.

We marched to our new barracks, following the orange and black lights. When we got there, Denis had his group waiting outside as well.

Each of us broke apart from our old armies and walked in together

"We can't really do seniority in the back or front because we don't have any, every single kid is a reject." Denis noted

"True" It wasn't like he was bagging on our army, it was just a fact. "We should probably merge our groups so that we're not divided."

"I guess so." It was clear that neither of us wanted to be having this conversation, but we were forced to do it so we sucked it up. "We can't just let them go where ever, then your army would be in one place and mine in the other."

This was a hard thing to do. Then I got it. "How about the two of us sleep in the very middle, in a bunk. When we sleep there the rest will hopefully follow suit and split up."

We brought everyone in and told them it was free seating. Julie seemed to understand and motioned for a couple of kids from the opposite army to take the beds next to the door with her. A kid from Denis' army, who I later found out was named Rick, caught on and did the same on the opposite end of the room. Soon we were split pretty much evenly, although there were a few pockets of each army.

Denis and I couldn't really talk about people's skills in the very middle of the room and we couldn't just go to our room because that would have defeated what we had just done. I texted him over my desk

-SHOULD WE HAVE PRACTICE?

=PROBABLY, HOW ABOUT A HALF HOUR, I WANT TO LEAVE PEOPLE TIME TO CONVERSE

-FAIR, LETS DO THAT.

I listened in on the army and thought

-I ASSUME ALL YOUR TOON LEADERS ARE GONE

=YEAH, AND YOURS 2?

-YUP

=ANYONE LEFT

-JULIE, THE GIRL WHO GOT SOME KIDS FROM YOUR ARMY TO TAKE THE BED NEXT TO HER, AND A KID NAMED WILL WHO I'VE BEEN WORKING WITH TO UNDERSTAND COMMANDS WHEN I'M OUT.

=COOL, I GOT RICK AND PED. RICK IS KID W/ UR SOLDIERS ON THE FAR SIDE, PED IS A DEFENDER OF MINE

-SHOULD WE HAVE PRACTICE NOW, TIRED OF WAITING

In response Denis stood from his bottom bunk. I hopped off the top. "Alright everyone we're going to have a practice"

"For this one and this one only we want you with your old army. Both Denis and I only know half of you." I told them.

They all marched out to our practice room. I agreed with Denis, Rick had some skill, I was surprised Fried hadn't grabbed him. Ped was terrible in large groups but if you gave him three or four he was solid. Rick was just about the opposite. He could only work in a large group. When he had only a few he wouldn't be any more sparing with his toon then if he had 30. The solution to this was of course, to give him 30.

Over on the bat side of things Will had taken control over the offense, which wasn't hard on anyone since they were used to him barking orders, although not having them be his own. Julie meanwhile had the other group doing a circle drill around a star.

"Will, attack Julie's star" I told him

Denis watched as well as Julie ordered her group to spread out around it. Instead of staying still the rotated clock wise pretty quickly. Because of this, it was both harder for Will's toon to shoot them but at the same time it was harder for Julie as well.

"On three, everyone fire!" Julie yelled "One, two, three!" They took out about half of Will's toon, but many of them were killed as well.

Will retreated for a moment. When he came back he had the entirety of his remaining toon members go crashing into the star. Four managed to get on, there was hope for the army yet.

_**hope you all liked it, unfortunately I have a bunch of homework so this is it for today**_


	14. Bella

It was the day of our first battle. We had been given only a week because technically we weren't "A new army." Denis and I had converted what was going to be our bedrooms. One was now a gym where our army could run on a couple of treadmills we had taken from the larger school gym next to the dining hall and the other was a game room with a ping pong table and a bunch of magnets that could be brought out to Null-G for many games.

Other than that, the barracks were basically the same and although we had improved on working as a single group instead of two, we were still far off from being there. To be honest, the biggest problem wasn't the soldiers it was me and Denis.

Even if we had been best friends and didn't clash with one another at all, having two people in charge is just terribly exhausting in the heat of battle. When we disagreed on a tactic we would have to explain in detail what exactly our play was going to be and by the time we had finished with that the moment to strike would have passed.

However, despite all that, we had a battle anyway. It was with Susan's Antelopes. They had won their last two battles, although neither with flying colors. I was confident the old bat and the old whale could both have easily beaten her army but I wasn't so sure about Wolf. Not only were most of the better players gone but I could already for see that Denis and I would step on each other's toes.

We had tried to split the army in two so that we wouldn't mess each other up but soon realized that our formations would often crash into each other screwing up the entire process. The truth of the matter is that even when Rome had co-leaders they were never in the same battle in the heat of the moment. At least one of them was always back in Rome.

In our case, there was no Rome to protect.

"Well I guess one of us should just be second in command." Denis said

"Thanks for volunteering" I said

He rolled his eyes "You got a better idea?"

I slumped back on my bed "No."

"Let's flip for it" He said

"You have a coin?" I asked

"No." We realized that since there was no use for money in the school no one in our entire army had even a penny. Since it was already 11 and our battle was at 8 the next day we really didn't have time.

We played rock paper scissors instead. Denis won. I said a minor curse but got over it fairly quickly (at least _I _think so…)

"Toon leaders to the game room!" Denis said. We had been using it as a sort of military strategy room when we needed to talk to toon leaders.

"Alright" He said once the doors were shut "Dan and I have decided I'm in charge of this first battle." Will raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Julie "Here's the game plan. Dan, you and Rick are going to go straight for the kill. We're taking out Susan and then I want you to just keep shooting. You're taking half the army and meanwhile the rest of us are going to surround."

"What about me, Ped and Will?" asked Julie

"Each of you are going to take 10. While the brute of Susan's force is busy with Dan and Rick you're going to surround them."

I would have done it differently. I would have kept more than 20 kids available to be used in the moment, but it was his battle so I kept my mouth shut.

We all went to our beds. I truthfully didn't mind sleeping with the rest of the army except that I couldn't read Demosthenes or talk to Val and Jane. Not only was there my soldiers to worry about but also the cameras. Jane didn't want to mess with them because it took too much of her attention to keep them from being off by a couple seconds when kids went to pee or get a drink.

In order to stop this from happening I had to either do it during free time when I could go anywhere without arousing to much suspicion or go into the kitchen and 'work on the garden' while it looked like I was trying to figure out how to best keep the tomatoes healthy I was really talking with Jane

**YOU NEED TO STOP WORRYING ABOUT NIKOLAI**

"He's smart"

**TRUE, BUT YOU'RE MORE SO**

"Even if that's true he has the entire staff on his side"

**YOU HAVE THE HEGEMON**

"You know as well as I do that I'm replaceable to Peter, it's like he said, there's no hurry. He's got plenty of time to find someone to follow his brother. There's no reason it needs to be me."

**THERE IS**

"What?"

**I'LL TELL YOU ONCE THE TIME IS RIGHT**

Usually Jane was very straight forward. It was a little out of character that she wasn't acting that way. "Fine, how's my family?"

**THEY ARE GOOD. FOR OBVIOUS REASONS YOU CAN'T SPEAK TO THEM BUT IF YOU WANT TO YOU CAN WATCH YOUR LITTLE SISTER BEAT UP A LITTLE GIRL**

"What she do that for?" Isabel was a sweet girl, and only 6, I couldn't really imagine her getting into a fight with someone

**THE GIRL WAS ON THE LIST TO COME UP HERE AND ISABEL WASN'T**

"And she beat her up for that?" I asked "For doing well on the test?"

**THE GIRL KIND OF STARTED IT, WATCH**

I watched the hologram as the picture of my sister began to walk down the hallway to the playground. Once she was there the other girl came out holding a piece of paper. On it was written 'Battle School Trainee' then she waved it at Isabel who nodded and tried to get onto the swings. The girl waved the paper again and stuck out her tongue. My sister started to swing. Then the girl stopped her and pushed her off the swing. Isabel, angrily pushed the girl. The girl seemed ready to escalate when a teacher stepped in.

"What happened then?" I asked

**YOUR SISTER WAS THE ONE WHO PUSHED THE OTHER ONE SO SHE GOT IN TROUBLE.**

"How much?" I asked, slightly worried, although not too much given how no one actually got hurt

**THAT'S REALLY NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE ASKING.**

"OK" I said "What should I ask?"

**HER NAME IS BELLA DELPHIKI, DAUGHTER OF THE GIANT**

_**Sorry I didn't have this up earlier today but I was really bogged down with work.**_


	15. Holo

I stood. I couldn't really make words come out of my mouth.

"Bella Delphiki?" I asked "Shouldn't she be with Petra in the capitol? What is she doing in Hartford?"

**THAT'S THE WEIRD THING. SHE IS**

"What do you mean? I know flight is getting faster thanks to you and the buggers but I still don't think you can send your 6 year old to a school on a different continent, even if you are dating the Hegemon."

**THERE'S TWO OF HER. SOMEHOW SHE'S IN BOTH PLACES RIGHT NOW.**

"And somehow neither her mother nor Peter Wiggin, both of whom managed to save the world before hitting puberty managed to find out she had a double?"

**THEY'VE NEVER MET THE ONE WHO WAS TALKING TO ISABEL. THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW SHE EXSISTS. **

"And you aren't going to tell Peter about this?" I was incredulous if not flat out pissed

**HOW WOULD HE TELL PETRA? 'HEY DEAR, SO I GUESS THAT OUR SIX YEAR OLD SOMEHOW HAS AN IDENTICAL TWIN IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, UNITED STATES, AMERICA AND I KNOW THIS BECAUSE THE ANSIBLE TOLD ME' HOW WELL DO YOU THINK SHE'D TAKE THAT?**

"You could just tell her"

**AND RISK GETTING CAUGHT? THE REAL QUESTION YOU SHOULD BE ASKING IS FIRST, WHICH ONE IS THE REAL ONE AND SECOND HOW DID SHE MANAGE TO DO THIS**

"Who does the Bella in Hartford live with, and what does she call herself?"

**HER BIRTH CERTIFICATE SAYS BELLA DELPHIKI AND THAT SHE WAS BORN IN GEORGIA**

"Which one?"

**UNITED STATES**

"And who does she live with?"

**WELL THAT'S THE THING, I DON'T KNOW, AND BELIEVE ME I'VE LOOKED. WHEREVER IT IS THEY DON'T HAVE ANY CAMERAS AND NO CARS GO THERE AND NIETHER DOES ANYONE WITH SMARTGLASSES.**

"So the slums?" I asked

**THAT'S WHAT I'D THINK BUT ALL THE STORES HAVE CAMERAS TO KEEP FROM PETTY CRIME, AND SHE HASN'T SHOWN UP ON ANY OF THEM. IT'S AS IF SHE ONLY EXSISTS INSIDE THE SCHOOL.**

"Which one of the Bellas do you think is the real one?" I asked. Jane had told me all about the Giants condition, so if Bella had it she might have been able to trick her way to America, but getting a new double on short notice was something even Bean himself couldn't do.

**I HAVE NO IDEA**

I was silent for a moment

**SPIKE IS CALLING YOU, HE'S SCARED, ANSWER **

I trusted Jane's read of emotions and was worried, she could see him and he really shouldn't have been calling me at that hour unless it was a real emergency. "Answer it"

"Dan!" He screamed in a whisper

"What is it?" I asked

Spike fell silent for a moment, he looked past the screen, I could see bags under his eyes. There was silence for the longest 10 seconds I had ever experienced. "Nothing really, do you want to play some Halo?"

I knew for certain then that something was going on, Jane, sensing this changed the camera from the front of the desk to the back. There was the girl, Bella. I didn't understand how she could be there. I had to play the game though, to give Jane more time.

I shot Spike's player. It was far too easy, he was signaling something to me and Jane. I just wasn't sure what it was. We kept playing. The girl didn't have any obvious weapons. She looked to just be standing, watching Spike. She didn't even seem like a demon child or anything, just a normal kid, spacing out at nothing in particular.

Eventually words appeared on the screen **GET OFF THE DESK NOW **I followed her instructions

"I'm tired Spike, night" I hung up. "What's going on? How did _she _get there?"

**SHE WASN'T. SOMEHOW SHE EDITED THE CAMERAS SO IT LOOKED LIKE SHE WAS BUT SHE WAS ONLY A HOLOGRAM. HUMAN EYES CAN'T SEE IT BUT I CAN.**

"Why would Spike put a hologram of her in there, and where was he, I couldn't see any beds at all, was that even his barracks?"

**NO IT WASN'T THE NORMAL BARRACKS, THAT WAS HIS COMMANDER'S ROOM.**

"Why would Samantha let him in there?" I asked "And why isn't Denis up right now?"

**BECAUSE THE TWO OF YOU HAVE A BATTLE TOMMOROW AND HE IS COMMANDING**

"You're saying that the fact that someone or something infiltrated this school and is impersonating Petra Arkanian's daughter is second fiddle to a game with a bunch of nine year olds?"

**NO, I'M SAYING THAT SINCE THIS INVOLVES SPIKE, YOUR KID, AND ISABEL, YOUR SISTER I FEEL LIKE IT SHOULD BE UP TO YOU**

"Thank you" I really did mean it, but the fact that it was close to one in the morning combined with my fear for both Spike and my sister made it sound halfhearted.

**I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU. AND IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING BOTH BELLAS ON EARTH ARE REAL.**

"Look, I need to go to sleep, I know this is more important than the battle but I'm just exhausted."

**ALRIGHT, I'M GOING TO KEEP WORKING ON THIS.**

I stumbled back to my bed. Will was awake and watching me from his bed.

"Dan, you taught me to read you." He said

"Yes?" I asked

"You're seriously messed up right now." He told me

I stood. I couldn't fairly lie to him. And I was too exhausted to do it anyway. "Yeah I am"

"Why?" He whispered to make certain not to wake the kids around us

"My sister is in trouble." I went to my bed, clearly refusing to continue the conversation. Will knew me well enough not to press. He went to his bed and I crashed onto mine.

_**Sorry this wasn't out sooner, I had a tiring day. Hope you enjoyed**_


	16. Gravity

When I woke up the next day I tried to put all the events of the last night behind me. We had to win this battle.

Denis was already awake and, unlike me, he was rested. He began to assemble the army for a last minute practice. I stumbled off of my bed but it was very hard to do.

"About time you wake up." Denis called me over "They changed the game. We're playing Barracuda."

I was flabbergasted. "What? But Samantha's only been in charge of them for a week."

"Yeah well then hopefully that will make it easy." Denis stated

We were going to play against our own team members. I didn't know what to say. To be fair that was in part because I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep between Bella and just lying in bed worrying but still.

"Well, are we changing our strategy?" I asked

"No, I don't think so."

I nodded. We went to the battle room in silence. If I had more energy I would have been riling up the army but I was barely able to walk from exhaustion.

Will came up to me "I know you told me to drop it but seriously, what's going on? Why were you up so late?"

"I could ask you the same" I said, not a very good come back but it was the best I could come up with

"Are you well enough to charge a toon?" He asked

I couldn't believe his insolence. I knew it was out of worry for me but that didn't excuse the fact that he had just questioned my leadership. "I'm fine." If it were anyone else I would have exploded at them but I really liked Will.

We got to the battle room. I closed my eyes, not truly asleep but not completely awake either. Denis' rile speech seemed distant to me.

We went into the battle room. I brought my group to get attacked. I shook myself to wake up.

"On three" I whispered to my toon. We were behind a large star. About 4 had died on the way over. I tossed one out into their army. Greg's toon shot them from my left and Spike's hit it from right next to the flag. I pointed half the toon to one side of the star and the other to the opposite.

"One, two three!" That was the moment. Everything in my entire life before that point had been leading up to those five seconds. First I heard a rumble. I looked up and saw Nikolai was alone in the viewing box. More rumbling. The headmaster was not there. I saw Bella Delphiki standing in the enemy gateway. I realized that behind her was my barracks. I saw Samantha Fried hit in the chest, frozen. And then it finally happened. The battle school broke in two. I looked back to the entrance my army had entered through not ten minutes prior and the door was shut. Forever. For the first time I looked out past the game into space. We were 10 feet away from the rest of the school, 20, 30, soon it was more than 1000. And then we started to pick up speed. In five seconds, everything, even gravity itself hit me. I began to fall towards my barracks and Bella. It was only 20 feet for me but for some others it was as much as 400.

"Everyone remain calm!" Nikolai had to yell even on the loudspeakers to be heard over the torrent of noise from the frightened children "Once you are all safely in the gravity I will tell you everything. I'm afraid that there's a lot to explain."

The gravity was turned back off but all of us we already moving in the direction of the gate. We fell and fell. I hit it ungracefully, although unlike some others I managed to stay on my feet.

I turned to Bella "Are you real?"

"I am." In that moment she was the scariest six year old I had ever met or likely ever will.

_**There's one more chapter and then on to the second book. Hope you've enjoyed it.**_


	17. Gone

I helped to catch people as they hurtled towards the barracks. It was only about a minute before both armies had crashed down.

There was shouting, there was crying, there was cursing. Then Nikolai was at my side.

"What. The. Hell. Just. Happened." I demanded. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't flail my arms. I didn't stomp my foot. I barely even opened my mouth. I was furious.

Denis crashed hard to my left because I was too busy fuming my anger at Nikolai

Nikolai finally spoke. It wasn't loud enough to be heard by everyone but I could and so could Bella and Denis. "It's time to get moving. You're needed."

"I want answers!" This time I was shouting. My hand, which was shaking in his face formed a fist which I nearly used. "You _WILL _give me some damn answers!" even though I was still only eight, my pure ferocity clearly frightened this fully grown man.

"Fine. You want answers? Ask your friend Jane!" I was stunned. Jane had been in touch with Nikolai?

**EVERYONE BE SILENT!**

For the first time, I heard Jane's voice. It was terrifying.

**I AM SORRY WE COULDN'T TELL YOU ALL OF OUR PLANS BEFORE TODAY BUT I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IS SAFE.**

I had trouble believing her.

**PETER WIGGIN HAS ORDERED THAT I MAKE AN ARMY. THIS IS BEST ARMY THE WORLD COULD OFFER. WE ARE GOING TO A WORLD WHERE EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT. IN THIS WORLD THE IS SOMETHING THAT NONE OF YOU HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED. IT IS CALLED BENDING. WATER, AIR, EARTH AND FIRE. THESE BENDERS CAN MOVE IT AT WILL. AND BECAUSE OF THIS, THEY WILL SOON BE ABLE TO ATTACK THROUGH OUT THE GALAXY. THEY ARE AS CLOSE TO HUMAN AS IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE BUT THAT IS NOT REASSURANCE TO ME. YOU HUMANS HAVE KILLED ONE ANOTHER BEFORE. YOUR JOB IS TO STOP IT THIS TIME. WE WILL KEEP THEM ALIVE.**

There was a murmur throughout the barracks. Everyone was looking around to see where this mysterious voice was coming from

**FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW ME, I AM SORRY WE HAVE NOT MET YET. I WILL MAKE A SERIOUS EFFORT TO GET TO KNOW EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU**

I noticed that Jane's voice was slowly becoming more kind sounding, less and less frightening and more and more gentle.

**I NEED ALL OF YOU TO WORK AS A GROUP. THE NEXT YEAR WILL BE A TRYING ONE. THIS WORLD IS ABOUT 100 LIGHTYEARS AWAY FROM EARTH. UNFORTUNATELY, THAT MEANS NONE OF YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GO HOME TO YOUR FAMILIES. HOWEVER, BECAUSE OF SOME WORK NIKOLAI AND I HAVE BEEN DOING IT SEEMS THAT IT WILL ONLY TAKE 10 DAYS IN YOUR TIME TO GET THERE.**

Jane must have known that she didn't need to explain more about how space travel worked. She had seen all of our classes through the cameras.

"You three need to come with me." It was Bella Delphiki. She grabbed me and Denis roughly and nodded to her uncle.

We followed her through the kitchen into what I figured out later was Samantha Fried's barracks.

"If we don't stop them, this 'fire nation' will likely destroy the entire universe." Bella stated. If I hadn't seen her in the video last night I would have laughed at her. Denis however, had not but seeing how serious Nikolai and I were he seemed to be taking this random intruder rather well.

"Jane, what do you need us to do, and why did you need all of these innocent kids to go with us?" I asked

**THEY ARE YOUR ARMY. HOPEFULLY YOU WON'T NEED THEM BUT YOU MIGHT. AND THEY ARE FOR JUST IN CASE.**

"You said a while back that it was better if we were still kids when we did it. Did what? What do you want us to do?"

**I NEED YOU TO FIND A PUPPET FOR THE THRONE OF THE FIRELORD.**

"Why do you care about one tiny little planet? Have they even gone into space yet?"

**THEY HAVE A POWER THAT SHOULDN'T BE POSSIBLE. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THEM BUT I HAVE. THEY CAN KILL PEOPLE JUST BY POINTING THEIR FINGERS IN THE RIGHT WAY. TAKE WATER BENDING, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY STARTED MOVING AN OCEAN? WHAT COULD YOU DO WHEN THEY DROWN AN ENTIRE CITY ON EARTH?**

"I could use the Doctor. Blow up their entire planet with one push of a button." Denis said

"No you couldn't" It was Bella "They would stop you. The earth benders can surround it in stone and render it useless."

"What does that even mean?" I asked

**THEY HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THEIR ELEMENTS. THEY CAN DO ANYTHING WITH IT. IF THEY WERE PROPERLY TRAINED THEY WOULD BE UNSTOPPABLE, ESPECIALLY IF THEIR TECHNOLOGY WAS UP TO DATE.**

"Ok, and why exactly is this girl here?" Denis pointed to Bella

"And what the hell was she doing with Spike last night?" I added

"She is my niece" Nikolai said, as if that answered every question we might have had about her.

"I didn't hurt your sister Dan, she's fine. I needed to show that she was too nice for this school. I knew that my launchie group was going to go in a matter of 20 hours and she was either going to be on or off. I decided to show them she was weak by beating her up. I didn't actually though, she's fine."

To say the least, I doubted her.

**_As you might expect, the sequel is the crossover between Ender's Game and Avatar the Last Airbender._**

**_It is going to be called "Bender's Game"_**


End file.
